It is known to restrict access to integrated circuits, in particular to the memories of integrated circuits, to prevent tampering, that is, unauthorized modifications of their contents. One particular form of tampering is storing such information in the integrated circuit that the integrated circuit behaves as if it is uninitialized. As the uninitialized state of an integrated circuit typically permits full access to all its features (for example for testing purposes), such tampering should be prevented. Some tampering prevention solutions depend on the proper functioning of a tamper detection circuit, which itself could be the target of tampering and may therefore not always be reliable.